To:THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE R.S.D.L.P.

Written:Written December 10, 1903Published:First published in 1929.

      Sent from Geneva to Russia.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1974,

      Moscow,Volume 34,

      pages200-201.Translated:Clemens DuttTranscription\Markup:D. MorosPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Dearfriends,

Thenew political situation was fully clarified after the publication ofIskraNo. 53. It is clear that the Five in the Central Organ are out to
hound both Lenin (even going so far as slander about his having expelled theYuzhny Rabochypeople from the Party and vile hints about
Schweitzer[1]) and the C.C., and the Majority as a whole, Plekhanov
says bluntly that the Five on the C.O. are not afraid of any Central
Committee. The C.C. is being attacked both here and in Russia (letter from
St. Petersburg about Martyn’s journey). The issue squarely faces us. If
time is lost and we fail to give the watchword for the struggle,completedefeat is inevitable owing, firstly, to the desperate
struggle of theIskraFive and, secondly, to the arrests of our
people in Russia.The only salvation is—a congress. Its watchword: the
fight against disrupters. Only by this watchword can we catch out the
Martovites, win over the broad masses and save the situation. In my opinion, the
only possible plan is this:for the time beingnot a word about thecongress, complete secrecy.All, absolutely all, forces to be
sentinto the committees and on tours. A light to be waged for peace,
for putting a stop to disruption, for sub ordination to the Central
Committee. Every effort to be made to strengthen the committees with our
people. Every effort to be made to catch out the Martovites andYuzhny
Rabochypeople in disruption, pin them down by documents and resolutions
against the disrupters; resolutions of the committees should p our into the
Central Organ. Further, our people should be got into the wavering
committees. Winning over the committees with the watchword: againstdisruption—this is themost importanttask.The congress must
be held not later than January, therefore set to work energetically; we,
too, shall put all forces into operation.The object of the congress is to
strengthenthe C.C. and the Council, and perhaps the C.O. as well, either by
a trio (in the event of our being able to tear Plekhanov away, which is not very
likely), or by a Six,which I would joinin the event of a peace that
is honourable for us. At the worst:their C.O., our C.C. and Council.

Irepeat: eithercompletedefeat (the C.O. will hound us) orimmediate preparation for a congress. It must be prepared secretly at
firstduring a maximum of one month,after which during three weeks the
demands of half the committees to be collected and the congress
convened. Again and yet again—this is the only salvation,

[1]SchweitzerJ. B.(1833–1875)—leader of the Lassalleans in the
German labour movement in the sixties; dictatorially ruled the General
German Workers’ Union and strongly opposed the Eisenachers, headed by Bebel
and Liebknecht.